The Russian city of Tolyatti[1], an automobile-manufacturing center not unlike Detroit in the United States, recently celebrated a dual holiday. The city turned 277-years-old last Sunday, June 1, 2014, the same day as the International Day for Protection of Children[2]. In honor of the two occasions, there were several public events throughout Tolyatti. Not all the attractions were family-friendly, however. The city also hosted an outdoor car show[3] that featured scantily clad women pole dancing. Unsurprisingly, images from the spectacle have both captivated and outraged many Russians online.

Vkontakte user Mikhail Kalashnikoff, a self-described Tolyatti native, appears to have uploaded to the Web some of the first video footage[4] of the pole dancers. His recording and a (graphic) photograph[5] by another eyewitness have allowed Internet users to view the performance with their own eyes, adding to the scandal a mix of voyeurism that has only boosted public interest. The story is currently trending[6] on the Russian image board Pikabu.ru, where it has attracted over 100 comments and more than 900 “up-votes” in the past 11 hours.

Many RuNet users have been quick to mock the irony that Tolyatti hosted lewd dancing in broad daylight on a holiday dedicated to keeping children from harm. Some commenters posted[8] images of Yelena Mizulina[9]—the Russian politician responsible for laws against “gay propaganda,” obscenities online, divorce, and foreign adoptions of Russian orphans—implying that her conservative social campaign has failed. Others quoted a popular sketch[10] by the troupe Comedy Club, where a character, the corrupt mayor of the fictional city of Ust-Olginsk, defends the decision to build a strip club on the ruins of a schoolhouse, arguing, “What’s the big fuss? Strippers are kids, too. They walk around in underwear and sleep during the day.”

Still others have battled over semantics[11], insisting that pole dancing isn’t the same as stripping. Indeed, there is a whole body of literature[12] delineating the differences between stripping, exotic dancing, strip dancing, striptease, pole dancing, and so on.